SCIENTISTS

New Delhi: The White House has formally appointed Dr DJ Patil as the first US Chief Data Scientist, Megan Smith- the US Chief Technology Officer- announced through the White House blog.
He will hold the position of Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy and Chief Data Scientist in the Office...

New York: If you find doing the laundry boring, a robot can soon come to your rescue. An Indian-origin scientist has developed an automated tool that is capable of doing laundry without any specific knowledge of what it has to wash.
The researches enabled the robot to do the laundry without...

Kochi: Scientists who have been running the four-stroke diesel engine of a light pick-up truck on coconut oil for the past one year have approached the union government to commercialize the biofuel.
The scientists are attached to the Kochi-based SCMS Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research and Development and the SCMS...

Cape: Last year was Earth's hottest on record in new evidence that people are disrupting the climate by burning fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases into the air, two US government agencies said on Friday.
The White House said the studies, by the US space agency NASA and the National Oceanic...

London: Men are less likely to quit smoking when looking at attractive women, according to a new study which asked men to rate how appealing pictures of different women.
In an experiment, scientists from Taiwan asked 76 men to rate pictures of various women.
The men did not know it but they...

Miami: The 2004 tsunami led to greater global cooperation and improved techniques for detecting waves that could reach faraway shores, even though scientists still cannot predict when an earthquake will strike.
A decade ago, scientists did not have a tsunami warning system in place in the Indian Ocean, because there...

New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Thursday complimented scientists and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organisation for the successful launch of the country's heaviest launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III from Sriharikota.
"This launch has placed India in the group of select nations who possess the industrial capabilities of carrying out such complicated...

London: An international team has performed a detailed analysis of organic carbon traces from a Martian meteorite, concluding that life on Red Planet is more probable than previously thought.
The scientists argue that carbon could have been deposited into the fissures of the rock when it was still on Mars by...

Washington: An experimental vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease was well-tolerated and produced immune system responses in all 20 healthy adults who received it in a phase 1 clinical trial, say scientists.
The candidate vaccine contains segments of Ebola virus genetic material from two virus species, Sudan and Zaire.
The...

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday directed authorities concerned to provide all possible help to young scientists and entrepreneurs to start innovative projects.
The chief minister visited the Guwahati Biotech Park Society, of which he is the chairman, and asked the Director of IIT, Guwahati, under which the...

New Delhi: An Indian scientist who danced to explain her research on tornadoes, has won the top prize in the 2014 'Dance Your PhD' contest.
Uma Nagendra is a researcher doing her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, Athens, in the United States.
The 'Dance Your PhD' contest, the results for which...

London: Bats are living up to their frightening reputation in the world's worst Ebola outbreak as prime suspects for spreading the deadly virus to humans, but scientists believe they may also shed valuable light on fighting infection.
Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including Ebola, rabies and severe acute...

Copenhagen: Governments can keep climate change in check at manageable costs but will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2100 to limit risks of irreversible damage, a UN report said on Sunday.
The 40-page synthesis, summing up 5,000 pages of work by 800 scientists already published since September...

Paris: A new device similar to a simple pregnancy home-test could allow doctors to diagnose a patient with suspected Ebola in under 15 minutes, its French developers said.
Trials at a high-security lab have validated the technique and prototype kits should be available in Ebola-hit countries by the end of...

Singapore: Scientists have developed next generation ultra-fast batteries that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only two minutes and have a lifespan of over 20 years.
The breakthrough has a wide-ranging impact on all industries, especially for electric vehicles, where consumers are put off by the long recharge...

Toronto: Earth is one of some 40 billion potentially habitable worlds in the galaxy with about one new life-friendly planet forming every year, a study has revealed, adding that our Milky Way may be home to some 3,000 extra-terrestrial civilisations.
However, what makes its difficult to reach out to them are...

New York: Sea ice around Antarctica has reached its highest level since measurement started in 1979, NASA said.
The upward trend in the Antarctic, however, is only about a third of the magnitude of the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.
The new Antarctic sea ice record reflects the...

New Delhi: The retirement age of scientists may be raised from 60 to 62 years to help put their acumen to an extended use. Indications in this regard were given by Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh.
"The government is seriously thinking...

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday congratulated the entire scientific community and space agency ISRO for successfully executing the country's Mars Orbiter Mission.
"I on my behalf and that of all our countrymen, pay tribute to the scientists and technical staff who have toiled tirelessly to create history...I need to...

Mumbai: To honour Indian Space Research Organisation scientists for their achievement of the Mars Orbiter Mission, TABcab, city's fleet of radio cabs, will display on its 200 vehicles their photos and messages congratulating the space agency.
The messages would felicitate ISRO and also display photographs of scientists and 'Mangalyaan', the spacecraft,...

Thiruvananthapuram: Expressing satisfaction over the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission, K Sivan, director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Valiamala on Friday said the life of the orbiter may be extended to one year from the planned six months.
"The life of the satellite was planned for six months. What...

London: Indian scientists are significantly more religious than their British counterparts, according to the first cross-national study of religion and spirituality among scientists.
The surveys and in-depth interviews with scientists showed that while 65 per cent of UK scientists identify as non-religious, only 6 per cent of Indian scientists identify...

Former prime minister of India Manmohan Singh congratulated ISRO on the successful entry of Mangalyaan into the Mars orbit. Singh also lauded the efforts and hard work of ISRO's scientists and said that Mangalyaan is a tribute to all of them.
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The Mangalyaan mission proves India's self-reliance. "I have always wanted to work for ISRO. It is a proud moment for us. We have achieved this in the first attempt," said an excited ISRO scientist.
...

Washington: Scientists have mapped brain activity to illustrate how fear arises when individuals are exposed to threatening images. Researchers from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas built on previous animal and human research to identify an electrophysiological marker for threat in the brain.
"We are trying...

Washington: Evolutionary thinking is not just about the past anymore. It is about the present and the future and addressing societal challenges such as food security, emerging diseases and biodiversity loss in a sustainable way, says a significant study.
The age of the Anthropocene the scientific name given to our...